Scholarly record

THE AUDIENCE OF THE IV URAL INDUSTRIAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART: CORE, PERIPHERY, AND PROSPECT

L. E. Petrova, K. A. Mitrofanova, I. A. Akhyamova

Abstract

Introduction. The IV Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art was held in Ekaterinburg. It is one of the largest regional art projects with international participation introduced in Russia. Once in two years the biennial occupies non-exhibition spaces in Ekaterinburg and other cities of the Sverdlovsk region. The main topic of the IV biennial was “New Literacy”; and the concept was that the fourth industrial revolution in information and communication technologies had changed our lifestyle, work, dreams and games. Who was excited by this idea and became a visitor of the event? Methods. The study was based on the audience segmentation and mediator programme influence. The marketing and visitor studies were also conducted. The audience segmentation included the core (people who visit contemporary art exhibitions regularly, almost every month); the periphery (people who visit contemporary art exhibitions occasionally); and the prospect (the potential audience with active cultural leisure, but who either do not visit contemporary art exhibitions or have visited them for the first time). The study involved 808 standardized visitors’ interviews, the post survey of 159 people by telephone, 30 focused interviews, 15 mediators’ interviews, 284 surveillance reports, the pre (290 respondents) and post (205 respondents) mediator tour surveys, 504 visitors’ comments to open questions. Results. The analysis of the data showed that the biennial audience mostly included young people (45% of visitors aged under 21; 38% of visitors aged between 22 and 34). Most of the visitors were females (71%). The significant number of visitors had a direct relation to art and culture and flexible occupation schedule. According to the segmentation analysis 19% of visitors comprised the core, 58% - the periphery, and 23% - the prospect. However, the mediator tour survey showed different rates in the audience segmentation (12%, 31%, and 57%, respectively). Conclusion. In general after the biennial visiting the attitude to contemporary art changed for better in more than half of visitors. The audience study is necessary in any cultural institution. The visitor portrait contributes to effective audience involvement, event curator message, and evaluation of the project development perspectives. We conduct the panel study of the visitors of the next V Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art with the main topic “Immortality”.

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